Another Day, Another Unflattering Boeing Moment on the Timeline

An 8-year old Atlas Air 747-8 made the rounds after footage of its nocturnal return showed an impressive trail of flames from one of its port side engines.

The Atlas flight returned to Miami International shortly after departure, and landed successfully with no injuries reported. It's unfortunate timing for Boeing, given its recent brouhaha involving the inflight decompression of a new-production MAX 9. The intricacies of aircraft manufacture, maintenance, and overhaul are entirely lost on the public, and their desire to see dazzling footage of damaged aircraft propelled a video of the Atlas Air flight across the internet in minutes.

The engine, as those in the industry know, wasn't a Boeing piece to begin with - given its birth date in 2015, the Atlas 747-8 was equipped with 4 General Electric GEnx engines. While much pre-market digital ink was poured out expecting Boeing stock to plunge, the incident appears to have been largely ignored by the financial sector. In the first half of the day, Boeing saw a 0.28% rise in stock price, edging it to $212.21 a share.

Nevertheless, the incident only adds to the mounting public image of Boeing as a company in decline, however true (or not) that is. In an attempt to figure out and unravel the quality issues that led to the recent Alaska Airlines decompression, Boeing named an independent quality advisor to oversee a "team of outside experts that will assess the company's quality management system, its practices, and facilities. Retired USN Admiral Kirkland H. Donald has been put in to head the team.

FMI: www.boeing.com